At this time Crabgrass knows little about the candidates in line to run for the MN CD2 seat Angie Craig is vacating in order to run for the US Senate seat Tina Smith is vacating.

 Hence this post is information about only one office seeker, since MinnesotaReformer has not published about the lot of them, recently, but has an Oct. 1 item about one.

In reporting on their report, Crabgrass is not endorsing anyone. But the candidate is experienced, and would likely handle the job competently. If other candidates are featured by outlets and appear as well or even better qualified, Crabgrass will report what items are encountered, but not actively search.

With that caveat, MinnReformer:

Minnesota Rep. Kaela Berg, DFL-Burnsville, announced Wednesday that she’s running to replace U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

Berg is a single mom, flight attendant and union activist.

“I have had to fight to be in every room that I have been in,” Berg said in a Reformer interview.

She was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2020 after winning a south metro swing district race.

The south metro 2nd Congressional District is Minnesota’s most competitive. [...]

Minnesota Sen. Matt Klein, DFL-Mendota Heights, and former DFL Sen. Matt Little are also running for the seat, as are Republicans   [...] 

Berg is part of a small group of working class state legislators — a 2024 study from Duke and Loyola Chicago found that less than 2% of state lawmakers nationwide come from working class jobs, dwarfed by the 50% of the labor force in working class jobs. Berg, whose parents are retired college professors, does not have a college degree.

She’s been a flight attendant for 22 years and is a lifelong Minnesotan, according to a campaign press release [...]  and has held various leadership positions in her local union, including union steward and vice president.

Berg has pushed legislation to expand funding for school mental health personnel, and another bill to increase the criminal penalties for so-called straw purchases of firearms, [...]

Berg said that her policy focus in Washington would be on lowering living costs, strengthening public schools and stopping “attacks on health care” from the Republicans’ “egregious agenda.”

The agenda is excellent, but a no-brainer for a DFL activist with any progressive credentials. That is to say, specifically, another party candidate might be as oriented toward sound ideas as Berg. Or a Blue Dog or Clinton type of waffle person; i.e., a non-progressive Dem, even perhaps GOP lite, to where Berg would be favored over that sort of mishmash possibility. 

Craig was okay, better than a Republican certainly, but far from being a progressive. Berg, if elected, would be a step in a fine direction.

Craig had pro-business funding which Berg might lack. But merit should control, not donor schmoozing or tailoring policy to please profit seekers who donate.

Berg has that progressive orientation, and an agenda which shows merit, prove me wrong!

 

Steve Timmer says a new Mineapolis mayor, with new ideas and approaches is needed.

 Crabgrass agrees, and goes further to castigate the State DFL clowns who overturned the Fetah endorsement-nomination that arose from the local DFL convention.

Fit that into a house divided wisdom. Bottom line - vote Frey out.

In awarding a coveted Spotty, Timmer reposts the winning LTE: 

When Jacob Frey ran for Minneapolis mayor in 2017, a major claim of his campaign was that he would end homelessness in Minneapolis within five years. While he cannot be blamed for the effects of the COVID pandemic, it is fair to say he has failed miserably [...]

[...]  His administration seems to only know how to pull two levers: eviction and fencing. It is reasonable to expect another four years to look like the last eight. The police will continue to play Whac-A-Mole chasing encampments around the city, destroying the possessions, legal documents and medications of our most vulnerable residents. [...]

Frey has failed, and it is time for an aggressive, housing-first approach that treats the unhoused as clients and a symptom of bigger problems, rather than as the problem themselves.

Fred Beukema, Minneapolis 

 Frey has used the veto repeatedly to stifle the will of the City Council, where majorities passed things but were short of a veto override veto. That's a part of a strong-mayor local government set-up, unless the veto is regarded as an unusual tool rather than a regular club to beat back will of the majority.

While that goes beyond what Timmer and his Spotty award recipient published, it is true.

Moreover, Minneapolis has ranked choice voting, which favors incumbency where a known better caNdidate is first choice of many but Frey gets second choice solely by name recognition, merit be damned.

Opinions can differ. So four good reasons to oust Frey from his paycheck - the convention that had local party decision authority picked somebody else, he has a Spotty against him, gross ineffectiveness, and overuse of the veto, Timmer judges him lacking in granting the Spotty being a fifth factor if you trust Steve's judgment as I do. Three strikes, alone, are an out.

UPDATE; Frey seemed disinterested or disdainful toward real and serious attention to the housing crisis and ways things might be bettered that way. Fetah has ideas, showing he cares. If Frey wins, expect no change. In effect, the choice seems Fetah, or more of the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What the fuck does he use on his hair?

 Those unfortunate military leaders being insulted by a man who greases his head:

The image is cropped from a Strib editorial claiming he's no business being at the Pentagon, the image being credited  (Rod Lamkey/The Associated Press).

It's ugly, and unique to the man that whatever it is, he uses way too much.

What is interesting in local Strib coverage is that they did not use carried text, they wrote their own demeaning and one might say insulting editorials of the gathered generals being verbally abused by civilian leaders.

A second Strib locally written criticism screed used this image to make a point. 

 

(DOUG MILLS/The New York Times)

 Strib used different authors for each editorial, and Crabgrass chooses to focus on the one critical of Trump.

Burcum: Americans are not the enemy, Mr. President

Trump’s call to make U.S. cities military “training grounds” is ominous.

By Jill Burcum

The Minnesota Star Tribune

September 30, 2025 at 5:16PM

From that, you can read the item, which is well written. For a flavor, Trump was the dog, Hegseth the pony, as Crabgrass sees things, and neither Strib item will be excerpted. Each is worth reader access separate from this post.

Instead, focus is on the first page of reader commentary to that last linked item =

- If you hold yourself to standards of intellect, integrity, honor, and decency and you encounter a family member or other individual who deems Donald Trump as fit and proper to be leader and representative of the United States, you then not only find yourself rapidly losing respect for that individual but also inevitably questioning and doubting their judgement on everything.

- Hegseth needs to move to an "office" setting much more suitable for his "skills." Bringing the top military leadership in to listen to that unhinged, incoherent ranting and raving (by both him and his sponsor) is just one more glaring example of his incompetence and unfitness.

I suggest a stool at the end of the bar at the Forest Lake Legion hall. 

 - Pete is the guy mothers warned their daughters about.

That's the post. To this point. My abiding question, what was the duty assignment Hegseth had at Guantanamo, and how did he handle it? Detainees there reportedly were beaten - 

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2015/01/the-sin-of-torture-guant%C3%A1namo-bay/ 

https://www.hrw.org/report/2011/07/12/getting-away-torture/bush-administration-and-mistreatment-detainees 

https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/211664/1/Regime%20of%20Torture%20%28Revised%29%2019.4.24.pdf 

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/22-years-of-justice-denied/ 

MORE: An excerpt from: https://justiceinconflict.org/2020/03/05/the-stuff-of-nightmares-how-the-specter-of-enhanced-interrogations-affects-the-9-11-military-commissions-in-guantanamo/

The Stuff of Nightmares: How the Specter of “Enhanced Interrogations” Affects the 9/11 Military Commissions in Guantánamo

Posted on March 5, 2020 by Mark Kersten

The following guest-post was written by Kate Gibson, who has been representing accused before the international criminal courts and tribunals since 2005, including as co-counsel for Radovan Karadžic and Charles Taylor, and as lead counsel for Justin Mugenzi before the ICTR. She is currently the co-counsel of Bosco Ntaganda before the ICC, where she also represented Jean-Pierre Bemba between 2009 and 2018. She was an observer to the 9/11 proceedings before the Military Commission in February 2020 as part of the ADC-ICT’s Guantánamo Bay Observer Program.

A detainee at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay is escorted to an interrogation by military guards (Photo: Associated Press)

Almost 20 years after the event, five men are facing charges for their alleged role in the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. The U.S. Government has charged the group of five accused – including the alleged 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Shaikh Mohammed – with terrorism and murder as a war crime, among other counts. This is a capital case, with the Government seeking the death penalty, and one that exposes the all-too thin line between the legitimate pursuit of accountability and the (ab)use of defendants’ rights to reach the desired result.

The charges would have been readily prosecutable in U.S. Federal Court. In fact, some of the accused were first indictedin the Southern District of New York. Ultimately, the proceedings were carved out of the domestic legal system and are now being conducted offshore before a U.S. Military Commission in Guantánamo, Cuba.

From its peak of 780 detainees in 2005, 40 people remain incarcerated at Guantánamo, a Naval Base just over 100 square kilometres in size, located in a steamy outpost at the southeastern tip of Cuba. At a current annual cost of USD 13 million per inmate, some of the 40 who remain are “forever detainees”, who will never be charged, but will be released at the conclusion of the “War on Terror”.

Petey was there. 

................................................................ 

Readers not following any earlier links are urged to read this, -

From Generals to Ideologues – How Trump’s Defense Secretaries Evolved From Restraint to Revolutionary Transformation

September 30, 2025

---

Donald Trump has appointed six people to lead the Department of Defense across his two non-consecutive presidencies. The progression from his first term to his second reveals a dramatic shift in priorities – from prioritizing military experience and institutional credibility to selecting ideological warriors willing to fundamentally restructure the Pentagon.

The contrast between James Mattis and Pete Hegseth tells you everything about how Trump’s approach to military leadership has changed.

Read it and reflect upon the difference between sanity and insanity. 

In light of the recent spectacle - and otherwise.

Subjective views of things will differ, so, you are the judge. 

Guardian has published two items about the pending shutdown, each speaking for itself.

 Here and here. 

Day later update, here. 

 

 

War mongering against non-citizens has its limits, ones Trump doubtlessly doubts, but the trial judge writes, and it goes from there - free speech is not limited to citizens. It has a broader reach.

click to enlarge and read caption

 Actually the image, and the red sign tell things, while the caption gives credit for the image.

Both matter, as lead-in for the story. Guardian:

 

Judge issues blistering opinion against Trump policy to deport pro-Palestinian students

Judge rules non-citizens have the same free speech rights as US citizens under the first amendment

• US politics – latest updates  - Alice Speri

  Tue 30 Sep 2025 14.49 EDT

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s policy to detain and deport foreign scholars over their pro-Palestinian views violates the US constitution and was designed to “intentionally” chill free speech rights.

The case was brought by the national American Association of University Professors (AAUP); its Harvard, Rutgers and New York University chapters; and the Middle East Studies Association (Mesa), following the arrest and detention of several non-citizen students and scholars who have spoken out for Palestinian rights.

In a 161-page ruling issued on Tuesday, the judge, William G Young, a Ronald Reagan appointee, called the case “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court”.

[Related] The Democratic superlawyer Trump can’t silence: ‘We are in the break-glass moment of American history’ --- 

Read more

“This case … squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us,” Young wrote in the ruling. “The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do’.

“‘No law’ means ‘no law’,” Young continued – a reference to the first amendment’s stipulation that Congress “shall make no law” abridging the freedom of speech. “No one’s freedom of speech is unlimited, of course, but these limits are the same for both citizens and non-citizens alike.”

The plaintiffs had accused the government of running an illegal “ideological-deportation policy” after Trump signed two executive orders in January targeting non-citizens who “espouse hateful ideology” and to combat antisemitism.

The government denied such a policy existed, declaring in court filings that it was the product of plaintiffs’ “imagination” and that officials had made determinations about each individual on a case-by-case basis. It also claimed the authority to deport non-citizens who have committed no crimes but whose presence it deems poses a threat to US foreign policy.

 During the trial, the government’s attorneys sought to block the release of documents detailing its processes and reasons for revoking student visas and issuing determinations of removability for green card holders. Several state department officials testified in court that they had been instructed by higher-ups to compile allegations about the individuals targeted, sometimes relying on dossiers from the rightwing Canary Mission, a secretive, pro-Israel group dedicated to doxing thousands of pro-Palestinian scholars.

The case was filed in March and went to trial in July. During two weeks of testimony, both citizen and non-citizen scholars spoke of the “chilling effect” caused on campuses across the country by the arrests of Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Rümeysa Öztürk and Badar Khan Suri. The scholars have since been released while their immigration cases proceed in court.

The Trump-friendly Supreme Court will need to contort to get out of this one. 161 pages, and the simple Congress . . . no law Amendment language are tight together (saying so without slogging through 161pages, that's admitted). The amendment makes clear Congress, the law maker, is constrained.

The executive cannot do a smoke and mirrors job to try what Congress cannot do. Congress is preeminent in making law, despite a paper snow of "executive orders" that the current Republican dominated two Houses of Congress consciencelessly and cowardly ignore as if under some  duty to defer to a clown. That's phrased a bit awkwardly, but "defer to a clown" is clearly wrong and every single Republican holding a seat knows it. They know. They futz. They look elsewhere than to their duty.

 

PiPress carries an AP report of Trump. It is nothing less than war mongering against the nation's citizens that these folks have in mind. It is shamefully un-American. It deserves impeachment. Immediate impeachment.

 PiPress:

Trump calls for using US cities as ‘training ground’ for armed forces in unusual speech to generals

I had thought reporting ignored the more important part of the Trump-Hegseth dog and pony. Not so. It is split coverage, this being far more important than Hegseth saying the military will be taken meaner and whiter, and politically incorrect. Beyond that, the real threat to every citizen of the nation we live in and in which speech is free, but soldiers may be in the streets shooting people. Strange, you think? The item states:

By BEN FINLEY, KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and EVAN VUCCI, Associated Press

QUANTICO, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces, with U.S. military might being deployed against what he described as the “invasion from within.”

Addressing an audience of military brass abruptly summoned to Virginia, Trump outlined a muscular and at times norm-shattering view of the military’s role in domestic affairs. He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to “woke” culture and announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.

The dual messages underscored the Trump administration’s efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but enlist military resources for the president’s priorities and in everyday American civic life, including by quelling unrest and violent crime on city streets.

“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” Trump said. He noted at another point: “We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”

Hegseth called hundreds of military leaders and their top advisers from around the world to the Marine Corps base in Quantico without publicly revealing the reason. His address largely focused on his own long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by “woke” policies, and he said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.

There's more. The fucker is taking marching orders from BiBi. Not Putin. Putin is more subtle. 

There clearly is more to the item than that brief starting excerpt. Read it. So you'll know who most likely will shoot you on the streets, if you get shot walking the dog or going for an ice cream cone.

This is not out of Orwell's 1984. It IS Orwell's 1984. It seethes with un-Americanism. With banana republic thoughts and plans, and Trump is fatter, uglier, and meaner than most dictators, that being shown by the latest reported abuse of  historic Americanism as it has been since the civil war. We do not as a nation, until now, have a worry of our soldiers shooting us on our streets. It is blasphemy against American citizens. It goes beyond Stephen Miller ugliness.

 

 

 

 

Trump has always shown a bit of White Nationalism to him, Hegseth showing quite more along with Jesus - Crusader Nationalism to boot. Both are that way, no surprise, but they are intending to use the military to police us, calling it "training," and that's illegal under the Posse Comatatis Act.

 Strib, mid-day today -

Trump and Hegseth declare an end to 'politically correct' leadership in the US military

President Donald Trump revealed that he wants to use American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday in declaring an end to ''woke'' culture before an unusual gathering of hundreds of top U.S. military officials who were abruptly summoned to Virginia from around the world.

The Associated Press

September 30, 2025

From late in the story:

During his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth said the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race, gender quotas and ''historic firsts.''

''The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don't-hurt-anyone's-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,'' Hegseth said.

Related Coverage links omitted

That was echoed by Trump, who said ''the purposes of America military is not to protect anyone's feelings. It's to protect our republic.″

″We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom,'' Trump said. ''And we will be a fighting and winning machine.''

So, White's only perhaps, certainly, Whites preferred seems the mood. Moreover, buried last in the report -

Hegseth's speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality, has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.

Hegseth has championed the military's role in securing the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying to American cities as part of Trump's law enforcement surges, and carrying out strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the administration says targeted drug traffickers.

Cops are cops. Trained military killers are for war, not for policing citizens. That's Bullshit. (That's Trump.)

 ____________________UPDATE_____________________

What a dick. See general web search = one of trump's wives said he kept book of hitler's speechs on bedside table

Specific reporting, e.g., Business Insider - 

Military & Defense

Donald Trump's ex-wife once said Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bed

By Business Insider

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

[...] "Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed ... Hitler's speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist," Marie Brenner wrote.

Hitler was one of history's most prolific orators, building a genocidal Nazi regime with speeches that bewitched audiences.

[...] When Brenner asked Trump about how he came to possess Hitler's speeches, "Trump hesitated" and then said, "Who told you that?"

"I don't remember," Brenner reportedly replied.

Trump then recalled, "Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of 'Mein Kampf,' and he's a Jew."

Brenner added that Davis did acknowledge that he gave Trump a book about Hitler.

"But it was 'My New Order,' Hitler's speeches, not 'Mein Kampf,'" Davis reportedly said. "I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I'm not Jewish."

[...] In the Vanity Fair article, Ivana Trump told a friend that her husband's cousin, John Walter "clicks his heels and says, 'Heil Hitler," when visiting Trump's office.

Here's the entire Vanity Fair interview.

I could not have made that up, nor, I believe, could first wife Ivana. I have no reason to doubt it. 

 

covid new variant XFG/"Stratus" in wastwater testing at increasing levels, listed symptoms vary among website reports - new shots for elderly not yet set in motion

 Anecdotal information, over the weekend two friends from Seattle reported in recovery stages, and brain fog as a notable symptom.

That made me web search. There is a new predominant US strain, XFG also named "Stratus," a member of the virus variant family for which the last public vaccination round aimed. The strain was first seen in Southesat Asia, but is now worldwide

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/health/stratus-covid-variant-cases-symptoms-xfg/6393316/ reported with a map of states showing those with highest new rates. The item has a chart showing varying wastwater testing from early in the year to now, gaining lately to levels similar to the months, this year - in most recent wastewater monitoring (which of course vary site to site, and the chart a bit unclear of averaging or other detail).

 Based on the calls from Seattle I did cherry pick among a few online sites.

New virus strain spikes in 9 US states with symptoms from brain fog to persistent cough

Stratus COVID variant shows ability to evade immune system better than previous strains

 By Angelica Stabile Fox News ---- stating in part

 

Stratus may also present as shortness of breath, chest tightness, sore or scratchy throat, headaches and body aches, upset stomach, nausea or loss of appetite, brain fog or trouble concentrating, and loss of taste or smell, although that symptom is now becoming less common.

If these symptoms arise, experts recommend seeking medical attention for diagnosis and proper treatment, possibly including antiviral medications, at-home remedies or over-the-counter drugs. 

https://health.stonybrookmedicine.edu/understanding-covid-19-variant-stratus-what-you-need-to-know/ 

Common Symptoms of Stratus

Most cases of COVID-19 variant Stratus are mild, particularly if you’re vaccinated or have received a booster. However, knowing what to watch for can empower you to take the right steps for your health.

Many symptoms of the 2025 Stratus mutation are like previous versions of COVID-19. The most frequent symptoms include:

• Persistent, dry cough
• Tiredness or fatigue
• Fever

Some people may also notice:

• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness
• Sore or scratchy throat
• Headaches and body aches
• Upset stomach, nausea, or loss of appetite
• Loss of taste or smell (now less common)
• Brain fog or trouble concentrating

If you experience these symptoms, support and treatments are available. It’s important to monitor how you feel and reach out to your healthcare provider with any concerns.

Of interest the first linked item did not mention brain fog as a noteworthy symptom, One site, link not saved had "difficulty from waking" as a symptom, and a Welsh site listed "comfusion." -- with this excerpted from the first site listed (the one with the map and wastewater chart) ---

During the week ending Sept. 6, the following states and the District of Columbia reported the highest wastewater COVID viral activity levels, per the CDC:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arkansas
• California
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• North Carolina
• Oregon
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• Washington

Symptoms of XFG Stratus variant

Currently, the symptoms of Stratus appear to be very similar to other recent omicron variants. There's no evidence that XFG causes distinct symptoms, says Schaffner.

Common symptoms of the Stratus variant include:

• Sore throat
• Cough
• Congestion or runny nose
• Fever or chills
• Shortness of breath
• New loss of sense of taste or smell
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Muscle aches
• Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea

Recently, there have been anecdotal reports that the Stratus and Nimbus variants cause “razor blade throat" or hoarseness. However, a painful, sore throat has been a well-documented COVID symptom since 2020, says Schaffner.

The severity and duration of COVID-19 symptoms can vary from person to person. It's impossible to tell whether you have COVID-19 from symptoms alone, which is why testing is important.

Minnesota and neighboring states (except South Dakota) are off that state listing.  Washington is on it.

Both the friends who called from Seattle said it hit them bad, (one my age, 81, other in her 60's). but that the fog is clearing. Neither are sure yet that long covid might or might not happen. 

I don't like that brain fog - neurological stuff, and even with MN not yet severe, I may mask up. Brain fog at my age is a real pisser of a possibility. I want no foggy briain whatsoever.

 

 

Perspective?

I had a birthday over the weekend and am now 81 yo. Hegseth has his generals, God has his angels, I'll still suck air until the Reaper moves, and he's near. The "shutdown" theater is back in town, troops are being sent to Portland while wholly not needed there, and posturing is afoot, as it's always been.

I've few years left, good or bad, and from there can speak my mind and bear consequences.

I feel great sympathy for the young, who will have a nation less than the nation my generation took over and fucked over, with me being no part of the disaster, other than a contrarian looking in powerless.

The young, I have no easy answers for them. They are stuck in the position that if they, (or those that do), speak out will be noted and blacklisted because we have more people than we have good lives to allocate, and the line is already long with Ivy League grads hungry and unprincipled.

It's not the nation it could be. It shouldn't be the way it is, but the way it is gets handed out by those holding power. That being so, the propagation of power, and wealth, is set by a system favoring those having wealth and power to serve their families and their class within the class war they wage upon the rest of us. Some get along better than others, but there is Carlin's big club that gets along very well. We do, and should resent them. They stand on the rest,and take more than they need.

So, happy birthday. It's a better world living in it, than dying out of it, so I will not complain too much.

Enjoy this fall, and leaf raking. The trees have evolved to survive, and none of the trees take undo advantage over the other ,trees. They are good trees. each over its natural lifetime. And - they don't need religion.

 

A Strib editorialist misses the heart of the matter. Considering what's the matter with UnitedHealthcare. It's not the market now having a few doubs. It's getting them out of the way.

 Possibly it's Luigi didn't shoot enough of them.

Here's Strib - today:

In response to my inquiry about that prospect, a company spokesman said, “We strive to meet our stakeholders’ evolving needs to understand our business performance through compliant, transparent and useful disclosures.”

Top executives have been meeting with some analysts in recent weeks. Morgan Stanley earlier this month revealed its research team met with CEO Stephen Hemsley, new CFO Wayne DeVeydt and the top executives of the firm’s major business units. “We are incrementally positive following discussions,” the Morgan Stanley analysts wrote on Sept. 10.

There are a lot of words before that. Several paragraphs after it. They stiff a newsman just like if he were a patient with a claim.

The truth is those fuckers are pimples on the ass of progress. They lobby, joining together to make the lobbying stronger and the campaign cash more, in order to block single payer, Medicare for All.

They are bloodsuckers on the bodies of sick and injured citizens. They are "MEDICAL INSURANCE."

Here is an image:

 That about sums up the state of health insurance in the U.S. of A. Rapacious bastards following basic instincts. Coarse instincts. Profiting greatly from medical suffering of patients.

 _____________UPDATE____________

Another Strib item from Aug 1, this year about "culture" at that firm was subtitled: 

CEO Stephen Hemsley’s call to be a more ‘provider-friendly enterprise’ runs up against company’s fraught history with hospitals, clinics.

There's also a very fraught history with claims from people expecting they pay for insurance and get claims covered instead of denied. The item in part states: 

UnitedHealth Group’s biggest public controversy in Minnesota a year ago was its fight with health systems threatening to leave the insurer’s Medicare network as contract negotiations stalled.

Now — with its air of invincibility punctured by federal investigations and financial missteps — the Eden Prairie-based health care giant is striking a conciliatory tone, including a pledge for friendlier relations with hospitals and clinics.

They’re going to need to be convinced.

“Minnesota hospitals have long struggled with UnitedHealth and its subsidiaries regarding prior authorizations and reimbursements for care,” the Minnesota Hospital Association said in a statement. “The company has, in the past, shown limited interest in responding to concerns about these issues.”

The reaction illustrates a trust gap built over years.

Amen. There's more to the item, but leave it at "trust gap over the years."

Do you suppose Luigi Mangione felt much love for the operation when he stood gun in hand?

Not justified in vigilante justice against individuals, shooting them dead, he was justified in hating the entire snake pit of insurers in the U.S of A., health insurers in particular, and it appears he couldn't take it any longer. Mad as hell and couldn't take it any longer.

Luigi's actions brought the problem into a focus, and the government - the Trump government - says it will seek the death penalty. You don't need any other information to know where the government puts its stress and policy. The status quo is to be protected, no matter what statements get bleated about "Greater Again." When things come down to actions, as opposed to words, a fucked up health system is no real problem to the Trump governing minions. Let the people suffer it, seems the govt view. They'd rather convene generals and stage dog and pony shows and money making promotions.

______________FURTHER UPDATE_______________

I don't like them any more than Luigi does, but I won't shoot anyone and urge others to not shoot, regardless of the level of hate and despair.

 _____________FURTHER UPDATE_________________

This classic scene from the film NETWORK explains Trump winning elections and JD being mentored, but then they get power, seek a death penalty for Luigi, and pump crypto schemes. 

ICE MAN TAKES $50,000 IN PAPER SACK AS PART OF AN FBI STING - OR NOT? WHATEVER THE TRUTH, NOW IT'S BECOME A CLOSED INVESTIGATION.

 Multiple sources reported a few days ago. TheIndependent - 

The White House on Monday strenuously denied that Trump administration border czar Tom Homan took an alleged $50,000 bribe he was reportedly caught on tape accepting from undercover FBI agents as part of an anti-corruption investigation last year.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the allegations against Homan, who according to The New York Times was handed the stack of cash — concealed in a takeout bag from the Cava fast casual chain — by the FBI agents during a meeting in September of last year. The Times reported that the DOJ under Trump shut down the investigation.

MSNBC reported separately that the alleged handoff was recorded on multiple hidden cameras. But Leavitt flatly denied Homan had done any of it.

“Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you're referring to, so you should get your facts straight,” she said.

Homan, who spent three decades in federal service with the U.S. Border Patrol and served as acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement director during President Donald Trump’s first term, had met with the agents, who posed as would-be federal contractors, on multiple occasions after they were reportedly tipped off about him allegedly soliciting payments in exchange for future help awarding federal contracts in a future second Trump administration. 

That is the nutshell version. {Is a strenuous denial one given while doing pushups?)

Multiple reporting gives further detail - Homan has not held power over awarding contracts. So, no pro quo could have been given even if there was a quid, and Homan insists he took no money. That suggests some error or fault in videotaping. Or in different conclusions and interpretations by DOJ and FBI personnel now reviewing things. If all the latter authorities had was a video of handing a bag, it could have been leftover food. Right? Whether earlier agents in the videotaped sequence were consulted is not reported. They could have been DOGEed out of federal service by the time Patel reviewed things.

What was reported is, case closed, no grand jury convened, authorities feeling the situation was crime free. 

In effect, Trumps DOJ and FBI dropped the matter as with Epstein-Files questions. Details differ, but deep sixing things is the parallel ultimate general outcome over both situations.

Whatever happened, Homan continues to run ICE his way, with Miller and Trump satisfied.

If it was leftover food in the bag, hope it kept fresh. 

 

 

Is this Peter Seller's segment from the Magic Christian film a precursor example of the Hegseth/Generals meeting?

Link 

Local newspaper carries report - Trump to meet with a war criminal butcher. Because he can, or because they are like minded?

 AP feed carried by Strib:

Palestinian death toll tops 66,000 as Netanyahu prepares to meet Trump

The death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has topped 66,000 Palestinians, Gaza's Health Ministry said Sunday, a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to the White House for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on halting Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza City.

The Associated Press

September 28, 2025 at 10:10AM

Netanyahu has come under heavy international pressure to end the war. Key Western allies have joined a growing list of countries recognizing a Palestinian state over Israeli objections. The European Union is considering sanctions and there are growing moves for a sports and cultural boycott against Israel.

After dozens of delegates poured out of the hall, a defiant Netanyahu told fellow world leaders Friday at the U.N. General Assembly that his nation ''must finish the job'' against Hamas in Gaza as his military pressed on with an offensive in Gaza City.

Trump has so far stood behind Israel. But the U.S. leader has shown signs of impatience lately, particularly after Israel's bombing of Qatar earlier this month in what appears to have been a failed attempt to kill Hamas' leadership. In Monday's White House meeting, Trump is expected to share a new proposal for ending the war.

Bibi the Butcher of Gaza doesn't care much about what Trump thinks or says (seldom the same thing).

 

 

This is egregious. This is Trump. This is petty beyond the pale. This is Trump.

Seattle Times:

Trump calls for firing of Microsoft president of global affairs

  Sep. 26, 2025 at 4:36 pm - By Alex Halverson  

The statement, which the president posted on his Truth Social account, came about two months after Monaco started working for Microsoft.

Trump’s tirade against Monaco said that in her role she has access to “Highly Sensitive Information,” which is “unacceptable and cannot be allowed to stand.”

[...] Trump also accused her of “many wrongful acts,” and said the government had recently stripped her of security clearances and banned her from federal properties.

He then said Microsoft should immediately terminate her employment.

Microsoft declined to comment.

It’s unclear what prompted Trump’s social media post. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo posted “Interesting new job” on social media earlier on Friday with a link to a July article announcing Monaco’s new role with Microsoft.

The posts from Trump and Bartiromo came a day after Microsoft announced it had cut off specific cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to a unit of the Israeli military that was accused of using the tech to store surveillance data on Palestinian civilians.

Trump coordinates his hateful stuff with FOX. Or what? Didn't know what side is up until FOX clues him in? FOX is not in the public interest. It's vile. Trump, likewise.

 

"What Trump’s UNGA Speech Tells the World"

 The headline is the same as borrowed from https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/09/24/what-trumps-unga-speech-tells-the-world/

That item is detailed analysis, so that none is needed here and readers can router over after reading next line:

Transcript of speech. CSPAN video of speech. _

____________UPDATE_________

There is a familiarity to the part of the speech on illegal aliens in the US and Europe.

Eariler Crabgrass posting was to ARROW which post linked to a video on how progressively high tech Israel is where the video also touted Tel Aviv, where video images showed how prosperous it is compared to, say, Baltimore, where our nation gives $3.8 billion or so to Israel per year that could go to our urban centers instead of to Gazan ethnic cleansing.

 That site has the theme Islamization of Europe, e.g.,  

Why the Netherlands Stopped Being the World’s Most Tolerant Country

 Commonality of theme suggests parallelism in propagation direction, Bibi Isrial, Trump U.S. of A.

Immigration is bad for Western Judeo-Christian culture; Samuel Huntington spinoff stuff. 

Believe that. Or don't. Trump sold a narrow margin of voters, won the swing states in 2024's election, and gave the speech Harris might have given, where she'd have handled it differently. The beat goes on.

Hegseth is having his conclave, Congress may shutdown, and Trump looked healthy giving the speech.

That's about it for current affairs in a nutshell.

 

 

More Hegseth.

 NBC Sept 26 -

Some of those senior officers would also likely travel with at least one aide as well as their communications personnel, who are responsible for securing the senior officers’ communications with their commands. Some will also have their own security. Those additional personnel, all typically seen as critical, could easily quadruple to more than 3,000 the number of military members having to come to Washington on short notice. 

[...]  The meeting comes as a government shutdown looms, potentially happening the day after the meeting. That could complicate attendees’ travel home.

President Donald Trump on Thursday brushed off any concerns about the meeting.

“I know, I love it, I mean I think it’s great,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/09/25/hegseth-abruptly-summons-hundreds-of-top-military-leaders-to-meeting/ 

  Sep 25, 2025, 07:46 PM

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to reporters at the Pentagon, July 16, 2025, in Washington. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the military’s top officers — hundreds of generals and admirals — to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The directive did not offer a reason for the gathering Tuesday of senior commanders of the one-star rank or higher and their top advisers at the Marine Corps base in Quantico. The people, who described the move as unusual, were not authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive plans and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, confirmed that Hegseth “will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week.”

Across the military, there are 800 generals and admirals of all ranks. Many command thousands of service members and are stationed across the world in more than a dozen countries and time zones.

The meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, comes on the heels of several unusual and unexplained actions that Hegseth has taken involving military leaders.

In May, Hegseth ordered that the military cut 20% of its four-star general officers, directed an additional 10% cut from all general and flag officers across the force, and told the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions.

In February, Hegseth fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top officer, and Gen. James Slife, the Air Force’s second highest officer, without explanation. He also relieved the military’s top lawyers.

https://www.militarytimes.com/pentagon/2025/09/25/new-pentagon-strategy-to-focus-on-homeland-western-hemisphere/ 

New Pentagon strategy to focus on homeland, Western Hemisphere

China remains a top national security threat, officials tell Military Times

By Carla Babb

 Sep 25, 2025, 11:34 PM

The Pentagon’s top national security focus will mirror that of President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, with a focus on protecting the homeland and the Western Hemisphere, U.S. officials told Military Times. (Alex Brandon/AP)

The Pentagon’s top national security focus will mirror that of President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, with multiple U.S. officials telling Military Times that the department will prioritize protecting the homeland and the Western Hemisphere.

Countering China will remain a key national security interest of the new National Defense Strategy, which is expected to be released soon, officials said.

The Pentagon document lays out the military’s plans to increase lethality, deter aggression, confront adversaries and defend America’s borders, a mission one official said was “why Trump was elected.”

Republican voters in the 2024 presidential election ranked the economy and immigration as their most important issues, which Trump vowed to address and bring under control. On Jan. 20, on his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order calling on U.S. Northern Command to help “seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking and other criminal activities.”

“[Protecting] the border is the top priority for the base, and I think for moderates, too. So this shift is fulfilling that promise,” said one official, who spoke to Military Times on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive policy information.

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/25/trump-hegseth-meeting-generals-00581413 

 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump listen during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Aug. 26, 2025. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP

By Paul McLeary09/25/2025 06:51 PM EDT

hundreds of top officials meet in person next week as a kumbaya moment, even as some defense officials feared it would prove little more than a photo op.

“It’s great when generals and top people want to come to the United States to be with a now-called secretary of War,” Trump said during a signing of executive orders, referring to his new rebrand of the Defense Department.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not said why he wants generals and admirals serving around the globe to show up for a meeting at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, according to three defense officials, who said they and their colleagues were floored by the move.

The sudden meeting has led to frantic travel plans and concerns from some defense officials, who worry about the disruption it will cause to their schedules and the security aspects of having most of the military’s top officers in one place.

Holy Jeez, this calls for doggerel. 

I do not trust this Hegseth chap
I think the man is pure mishap
He rings all top brass into town
Fan loading up with Congress down

 Yes, a shurtdown is looming. And, yes, I could have ended the second line with a differing rhyme word.

We wait. We see.

 

 

Rudy G. has found himself in the news these days. Where is he living, New Hampshire?

It is quaint that he seems to have not been corresponding with Ukranians these days, or if so it's unreported. However, he remains a man of consequence, so -

Rudy Giuliani has ‘fully’ paid the $148m he owes two election workers he defamed, court docs say

N.Y. judge orders Rudy Giuliani to pay $1.36M in back legal fees

Rudy Giuliani injured in New Hampshire car crash

And Tucker Carlson is posting currently about 9/11 in an attempt to gin up paid readership for his channel.

https://tuckercarlson.com/

 Things converge.

_______________UPDATE______________

Trump to award Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom

* IMAGE *

With all the Trump foreign gangster deportation stuff being blathered about, we're not hearing much about Triad or Yakuza.

 Is it out of deference to institutions of nations holding the two biggest shitloads of U.S. Treasuries?

Or Trump's respect of tradition? Respect for peers? Or Trump's love of the Monroe Doctrine, only focusing on Western Hemisphere events and people when feeding Homan deportation policy.  Or just Stephen Miller not wanting to bite off more than he can chew? Fearing to?

Triad.

Yakuza. 

 

Where does Gary Gross find this stuff? A. Alpha News - a/k/a Fascist Fantesy Freaks Foment Falsehoods, 5-F, like Four-H but here you can put a cuss word in front and be into 6-F - and that Sheriff can mask up with ICE and be identified anyway by right arm body ink

 As if he's in the NBA, NFL or a Mexican Cartel, or something, the man pays good money to be identifiably inked. It used to be law enforcement in describing a person would note a tattoo as visual proof. This guy looks as if he'd go onto three pages of tattoo fact, and that's one arm!

You see it in watching as much of the video as you care to.

And if he's an ICE Man, where's the fucking mask? He shows his face and I thought only Homan did that - 

Uncle Tom

- and the rest masked up to look like a meaner Storm Troop. But what do I know? When they come for me I suppose I can ask them about it.

(Gary's been blogging perhaps longer than I have, I believe so, and his politics are his own, but he's a good person living just as I am under a Constitutional First Amendment - and ICE masked men will never be after Gary. But featuring this outstate Sheriff guy is like posting disease of the day. Opinions can differ. In a way it is newsworthy that Ellison distances as best he can the State of Minnesota from Trump's agenda, but is it news Ellison would feel and act that way? That a Sheriff is that way in-state is sad, but we don't cave in to it. The Sheriff seems not a Harvard man, likely from Yale, Skull and Bones like the Bush guys, or like JD, Yale Law School grad. Or do I guess wrong?)